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Wednesday, 13 November 2013

Classics Club Spin #4

For this spin, the rules are the following:

1.  Go to your blog.
2.  Pick twenty books that you've got left to read from your Classics Club List.
3.  Try to challenge yourself: list five you are dreading/hesitant to read, five you
      can't WAIT to read, five you are neutral about, and five free choice (favourite
      author, rereads, ancients --- whatever you choose.)
4.  Post that list, numbered 1-20, on your blog by next Monday.
5.  Monday morning, we'll announce a number from 1-20.  Go to the list of twenty
      books you posted, and select the book that corresponds to the number we 
      announce.
6.  The challenge is to read that book by January 1, even if it's an icky one you
      dread reading!  (No fair not listing any scary ones!)




I used the random list organizer here to choose the 20 books from my master list.  After having to drop a few books for various reasons (out of series order, they are scheduled with a group at a certain time, etc.) my list looked like this:

  1. The Bucanneers (1938) - Edith Wharton
  2. Paradise Lost (1667) - John Milton
  3. The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) - Ann Radcliffe
  4. Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883 - 1885) - Freidrich Nietzsche
  5. The Cloister and the Hearth (1861) - Charles Reade
  6. Common Sense (1775 - 1776) - Thomas Paine
  7. Slaughterhouse Five (1969) - Kurt Vonnegut
  8. Travels with a Donkey in Cévennes (1879) - Robert Louis Stevenson
  9. The Mill on the Floss (1860) - George Eliot
  10. Bleak House (1852/53) - Charles Dickens
  11. The Moonstone (1868) - Wilkie Collins
  12. Tales of Ghosts and Men (1910) - Edith Wharton
  13. Antigone (441 B.C.) - Sophocles
  14. Tevye the Dairyman and Motl the Cantor's Son (1894) - Sholem Aleichem
  15. The Warden (1855) - Anthony Trollope
  16. Murder in the Cathedral (1935) - T.S. Eliot
  17. Essays (1580) - Michel de Montaigne
  18. We (1921) - Yevgeny Zamyatin
  19. Utopia (1516) - Thomas More
  20. The Pilgrim's Regress (1933) - C.S. Lewis

Then I broke them into the listed categories …….


5 Books I'm Hesitant to Read:
  1. Paradise Lost (1667) - John Milton
  2. Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883 - 1885) - Freidrich Nietzsche
  3. Common Sense (1775 - 1776) - Thomas Paine
  4. Essays (1580) - Michel de Montaigne
  5. Utopia (1516) - Thomas More

 5 Books I Can't Wait to Read:
  1. Travels with a Donkey in Cévennes (1879) - Robert Louis Stevenson
  2. The Bucanneers (1938) - Edith Wharton
  3. The Pilgrim's Regress (1933) - C.S. Lewis
  4. The Warden (1855) - Anthony Trollope
  5. The Cloister and the Hearth (1861) - Charles Reade

5 Books I Am Neutral About Reading:
  1. The Mill on the Floss (1860) - George Eliot
  2. Murder in the Cathedral (1935) - T.S. Eliot
  3. We (1921) - Yevgeny Zamyatin
  4. Slaughterhouse Five (1969) - Kurt Vonnegut
  5. The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) - Ann Radcliffe

5 Free Choice:
  1. Tevye the Dairyman and Motl the Cantor's Son (1894) - Sholem Aleichem
  2. Bleak House (1852/53) - Charles Dickens
  3. The Moonstone (1868) - Wilkie Collins
  4. Tales of Ghosts and Men (1910) - Edith Wharton
  5. Antigone (441 B.C.) - Sophocles


Please God, don't let me get Montaigne's Essays.  That will kill me, especially with the January 1st deadline.  I await the number to be chosen with trepidation and hope it is one of the books that I already have in progress (The Pilgrim's Regress and Tales of Men and Ghosts), although I know that is not the purpose of the spin.  Normally I would be happy to be challenged, but with Christmas just around the corner I wonder if I will be able to accomplish it.



Strangely this is a little like gambling ………..  although, safe gambling with a purpose of higher education.  No wonder it's so fun!


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10 comments:

  1. Anonymous14 November 2013 at 12:24

    I like the range of your list! Of these, I especially enjoyed We and Antigone. (I'm a sucker for ancient Greek writings.)

    Here's wishing you a good spin pick!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cleo14 November 2013 at 17:03

    Thanks, Readthegamut! I'm so glad that you gave We a thumbs up. I had seen it on a number of classic lists and it's always intrigued me, but I'd never come across anyone who had read it and could give it a good recommendation.

    I saw your spin list but I'm off to your blog to check out your complete list!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Holly15 November 2013 at 02:28

    Some really great texts in there. I'm currently reading Paradise Lost, and I must admit it's not as hard as it looks. I was weary about it too, but once you get into the swing of the blank verse, you'll be fine!

    Good luck to you, I hope you get a good swing pick!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cleo15 November 2013 at 09:48

      Hi Holly! It's good to know that Paradise Lost is not as hard as it looks. I have a study guide by C.S. Lewis to accompany me when I get around to reading it, so while there is a mild anxiety about it, I don't have the trepidation that I feel with Ulysses, Moby Dick, etc. I'd be interested to know your thoughts about it once you finish!

      Delete
  4. Mabel15 November 2013 at 11:40

    I have read about a third of Montaigne's Complete Essays. They aren't so bad. (But the book is huge!) :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cleo15 November 2013 at 13:43

      Yes, exactly Mabel ……. it is the length that is daunting. However, I couldn't spend months reading just essays either. This book seems like it would be best read over a long period of time and interspersed with other reads. After reading your blog, I see that you have numerous books on the go at the same time, so I assume that's what you did …?? I used to read only one book at a time but now I read many, which slows down my reading and allows me time to mull over what I've read; if I can keep it balanced (ie. not too many books at one time), this approach works well. Sadly sometimes balance is a hard thing to achieve ….! :-Z

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  5. Anonymous15 November 2013 at 16:49

    BLEAK HOUSE! BLEAK HOUSE! BLEAK HOUSE! So, I kind of love Bleak House. That aside, this is a very ambitious list, and I'm excited to see what novel you end up reading. So many wonderful options.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cleo15 November 2013 at 17:14

      Well, I admit I kind of cheated with Bleak House. I'm going to be reading it after I finish David Copperfield with the Reader's Review group on Goodreads, so even if it doesn't come up on the Spin, I'll be reading it soon in any case. I'm finding David Copperfield very enjoyable and very different from earlier Dickens, so now I'm excited to read Bleak House as well.

      Thanks for stopping by my blog! I hadn't found yours yet but now I've been able to check out your list. Wow and WOW! So many excellent choices but so many chunksters! I'll be interested to see which book you end up with too!

      Delete
  6. Anonymous18 November 2013 at 08:58

    Well bleak House and David Copperfield. That's ambitious. I'm enjoying Copperfield for the moment. I'm reading it gradually. It will probably take me until the 30th of December to finish it. Update us on how Bleak House is going and Happy reading….

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cleo18 November 2013 at 19:33

      Yes, Didi, I have too many chunksters going at the moment but that's the way the spin goes! At least they should be enjoyable reads. I probably won't finish DC until mid-January but I will look for your posts on the Classics Club DC Sync Read. Happy reading to you too!

      Delete